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know the courage, moral and physical, of the man, who, on platform and stump, told the truth and the whole truth as Carl Schurz did to men who did not want to hear it; of his fine career amid the din of arms, another will speak far better than I could, but it was no finer than that in the forum. [Applause.]
Finally, it is much for us that we have the evidence for what we say, both from the lips of men here present, and from the pens of those who have joined the majority. But, even without it, no discriminating man can read Schurz's Lincoln or Clay, without conviction. Thackeray said of Washington, that his words were not idle as ours are but grave and strong, ready on occasion to do their duty. This quality of language is always the mark of the thinker, who is the same, I take it, as the reformer, of the statesman and of the man of action. In closing, therefore, I call to mind that in the interpretation of Clay and Lincoln, which Schurz has given us as an abiding possession, those Titans of the slavery struggle have spoken to posterity in all the strength of their own qualities, by the words of the one who was fit to delineate their character by reason of his own. [Applause.]
There is a familiar proverb, that “Whom the gods love die young.” That saying is not always rightly understood. What it means is, that those whom the gods love stay young until they die. In that sense, how well it applies to our distinguished guest. [Applause.]
